Martial Online.

A lantern produced light in a dimly lit room. A middle-aged man with a long beard, wearing a brown robe with a hood, stared out the window as black feathers fell from the sky.

"Dark times..." Flarehead murmured. "It resembles the sight when black ash drifted from the Dark Continent, bringing endless darkness with..."

Crash—Another window shattered, sending broken glass flying across the merchant store. A black-feathered crow crashed into the floor and scanned its surroundings. Its black eyes then glowed after seeing the long-bearded man.

"A vile creature." Flarehead picked up a piece of glass and threw it at the crow, but it had already gone airborne and was heading his way.

"CAW!" The crow screeched and showed its dark claws. It started diving down with blinding speed.

Flarehead picked up a pitchfork from one of the merchant store's display vases and threw it at the flying black-feathered crow.

The crow screeched, but then the pitchfork's three sharp forks pierced its body, and it flung straight to the end of the room, where it hit a wall and fell to the ground—dead.

Flarehead walked to the dead crow, pulled out the forkhead from its corpse, and turned towards the shattered window. Black feathers fell, and following that, three crows appeared on the windowsill, looking at him with their eerie black eyes.

"Creatures of evil, begone!" Flarehead raised the pitchfork above his shoulder. A very dim light appeared at the tip of the pitchfork, glowing bronze. "Inner Power!"

Boom—a window, where the crows stood, exploded into a thousand fragments.

...

Loch City. Martial Company.

Graham Loch, the Chairman of Martial Company, stood in his office, looking through the window with his hands behind his back. Behind the window, there was the room with thousands of screens and his subordinates working tirelessly.

Knock, knock—a middle-aged man with brown hair and a stylish suit knocked on the door and said. "Sir, you called for me?"

"Do you know where she is?" Graham asked.

"Ah, yes. She should be at Yatagarasu. We are monitoring her through player screens." The middle-aged man replied.

"Alright. Prepare my VR headset. I will be going to visit her." Graham said.

"Yes, sir!" The middle-aged man bowed his head and left his office.

Graham turned around, left his office, and entered the room with thousands of screens. His subordinates didn't stop working as their eyes were glued to the screens.

"Report." He walked to the leader of the department and asked while staring at screens of Amaterasu.

"Yes, sir." A bushy-bearded man with thick glasses rose from his seat and looked at the screens. "The World Quest is proceeding as planned. More and more players are logging in, but we have a lot of complaints from players from Yatagarasu and Tsukuyomi."

"What are they saying?" Graham asked while intensely looking at crows flying across the sky.

"They are saying it's unfair that players from Amaterasu are getting special treatment."

"Special treatment, huh." Graham chuckled. "All cities can have their own World Quest, they just have to fulfill the conditions."

"What will we say to them?"

"Nothing." Graham said. "They will eventually activate their own World Quests."

The bushy-bearded man nodded. "The World Quest happened sooner than expected. What if they can't complete it? This World Quest was never planned to be this early."

Graham caressed his nose and said. "They are around two weeks earlier than we expected. The boss battle might prove to be very... difficult.

"If they fail, Amaterasu players will receive punishment, which will hinder them for several months. It is also good because it shows the consequences of failure in this game. The players from other cities will think twice if they want World Quest, but they have no choice either way.

"They will receive their own World Quest, and they know the severity of failure!"

...

"Protect the dojo!" Rich shouted while wielding his sword. His students were gathered in the yard with proper swords, fighting against black-feathered crows.

A crow screeched and flew towards Rich. Its claws were stained with blue blood. It had already tasted the blood of either an innocent NPC or a player.

"Basic Slash!" Rich raised the sword above his head and slashed down diagonally. The sword slashed through the crow's body. The black feathers fell to the ground as the crow disappeared into nothingness.

"Keep the line tight. Do not let them inside the dojo!" Rich shouted and saw one of his students screaming while two crows were clawing at her scalp, trying to rip her hair out.

"Get away from her!" Rich lunged forward with his sword in a horizontal stance. "Basic Slasher!"

The sword cut through the air horizontally and shredded through the two crows. The crows screeched as their bodies split in two. They stained the air with their blood before their corpses disappeared into a cluster of pixels.

"Master!" His student exclaimed. She stood up from the ground and touched the top of her head. She flinched in pain, as there were bloody scratches that could get infected if they weren't treated soon.

"Go inside, apply medicine." Rich said and looked towards the bright blue sky. Only seconds later, the peaceful sight was disturbed by flying crows that covered the sky in darkness.

...

Dr. Amelia had her hands full as more and more injured patients came running through the front door, some still covered in black feathers and bloody scratches as they barely escaped.

Her lazy-looking assistant was helping the injured patients by giving them medication for their injuries. However, she soon noticed something strange.

She squinted her eyes until they bulged wide open. "Dr. Amelia, come look!"

"Excuse me." Dr. Amelia smiled at the young girl and patted her head before heading to her assistant. She saw her assistant looking at one of the injured patient's scratches.

"What is it?" She asked while crouching beside the injured patient.

"Look..." Her assistant said.

Dr. Amelia frowned and took a deeper look at the injury. The injury was on the cheek of a middle-aged man who looked shy to be stared at by two attractive women.

The injury was still bleeding with blue blood, but there was also something else mixed in with the blue blood. It was black smoke that was slowly seeping out of the injury.

Dr. Amelia's eyes shook. "B-Black Smoke of Verhan? I-I thought you could only get inflicted by it in the Dark Continent."

"Mister, have you visited a borderline town?" The assistant asked.

"No..." He shook his head. "I have my own store and family to feed; I don't have time to leave Amaterasu."

Dr. Amelia forced a smile. "Wait for a moment; I will get some medicine for your wounds."

She then nodded at her assistant with a knowing look and returned to her room. The assistant followed behind. They took seats with heavy looks.

"Those crows..." Dr. Amelia whispered. "They are creatures from the Dark Continent. They can inflict people with Black Smoke of Verhan."

"How is that possible?" Her assistant asked with a panicky look. "I thought it was only possible to receive it via air."

"I am not sure, but whoever got scratched by the crows will be inflicted by the Black Smoke of Verhan."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"It takes three days for Black Smoke of Verhan to kill their victim.

"The Black Smoke of Verhan is so diabolical because there is only one way to get rid of it: kill the person who is the reason for inflicting the person with the Black Smoke of Verhan.

"Before, it was considered impossible as the Black Smoke of Verhan's creator was unknown. However, now, it is the crows who are the reason for this."

"Does this mean... if we kill the crows?" The assistant exclaimed.

"It should also kill the Black Smoke of Verhan that is inside the people." Dr. Amelia crossed her supple legs. "That is still just a guess, but I bet my twenty years of medical experience that this is the only way."

"Should we inform Lord Kiryu and his Silver Knights?" The assistant asked.

"No." Dr. Amelia shook her head. "They live in seclusion and don't get involved with the lives of us mortals. They are guardian spirits of Amaterasu, and they only take action if dark power rises again from the west."